From Roman Egypt to the Renaissance: the evolution of the Celtis glossary, Part 1

Dickey, E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4272-4803 (2025) From Roman Egypt to the Renaissance: the evolution of the Celtis glossary, Part 1. In: Scappaticcio, M. C. (ed.) Latin Texts on Papyrus and the Study of the Classics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 163-177. ISBN 9781009586634 doi: 10.1017/9781009586634

Abstract/Summary

The classified glossaries of the Hermeneumata Pseudodositheana, preserved by medieval manuscripts in many different versions, are also transmitted in numerous papyri, some as early as the first/second century CE. This piece examines the relationship of the papyri to the medieval versions, showing that different papyri are related to different medieval versions and that therefore at least four of those versions had already diverged from one another in antiquity. Surprisingly, one of those four is the Celtis glossary (Vienna suppl. Gr. 43), whose ‘medieval’ attestation is so late as really to be from the Renaissance. Further investigation shows that the papyrus related to Celtis (CLTP III.11 = P.Stras. inv. Gr. 1173) is not a direct ancestor of the Celtis glossary as it appears in the Renaissance manuscript; the Celtis glossary must therefore be older than this papyrus, which was copied in the third or fourth century CE. And since the papyrus’ transliteration (the Latin is in Greek script) probably dates to the first/second century, the Celtis glossary probably goes back at least that far – and it is possible that the Renaissance version is a retransliteration of one that circulated with Latin in Greek script.